Tag Archives: Natasha Bowens

TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat” planning is well underway, with 14 speakers confirmed, the venue in place and food details underway. We’ve also chosen our five finalists for the TEDxManhattan Challenge – we challenged people last year to work in their community anywhere in the United States on a project related to sustainable food and farming.

We received around 40 applications from all over the country and have narrowed it down to the final five. The winner will get to speak live from stage at the 2012 TEDxManhattan event. If you would like to vote for your favorite, please email your choice by December 5th to TEDxManhattanChallenge@gmail.com.

We’re also encouraging everyone to set up a local viewing party to watch the event live – if you’d like to watch, please tune in to our broadcast on January 21st at www.livestream.com/tedx. Better yet, set up a viewing party in your neighborhood and invite friends over to watch the talks with you. You can find out more information about viewing parties and setting one up at http://tedxmanhattan.org/viewing-parties/.

The five TEDxManhattan Challenge finalists are:

1. Natasha Bowens, The Color of Food – http://thecolorofood.org/home.html She’s spent the past year creating a space for farmers and food activists of color to connect, work together and share stories, history and traditional knowledge. The Color of Food is a space to raise the voices of communities of color in the movement for food justice.

2. Rick Nahmias, Food Forward – http://foodforward.org/In 2.5 years they have become Southern California’s largest backyard harvesting for the hungry NPO. Food Forward organizes corps of between 3 and 300 volunteers to harvest excess food from private homes and public spaces, donating 100% to the hungry.

3. Amie Hamlin, New York Coalition for Healthy School Food – http://www.healthyschoolfood.org/New York Coalition for Healthy School Food has been working with the New York City Office of SchoolFood (they spell it as one word) in a formal partnership for the last few years to develop and introduce plant-based entrees to serve as the protein component in school lunches. They are doing this in 18 schools and have a waiting list of 48 schools.

4. Howard Hinterthuer, Veteran’s Food Production Projecthttp://www.wuwm.com/programs/news/view_news.php?articleid=9474Their organic therapy project for veterans, now in its fourth year, is transitioning into a food production program designed to supplement and eventually replace food that they currently purchase through vendors.

5. Billy Mawhiney, Fresh Mitchell – http://freshmitchell.info/ Fresh Mitchell is a group aimed at changing the way rural Mitchell, South Dakota, eats. They began marketing their Farmers Market, got accepted for SNAP and credit cards, and began a CSA through a 5th generation farm about 30 miles away (called the Goosemobile). They recently hosted their first Fall Harvest Celebration, a night of Old Fashioned fireside stories from the South Dakota food movement to raise funds for an edible classroom, demo area for the market and CSA support.

Please email your favorite finalist by December 5th to TEDxManhattanChallenge@gmail.com.

Change Food is a nonprofit whose mission is to connect and transform the food we eat, the people who produce it, and the world in which it is grown. To read and learn more, visit The Guide to Good Food blog.